Production and Technical Credits

On the one hand, there were a lot of newreleases that charted this week. On the other hand, not a lot of them were particularly strong in terms of units sold. But that doesn't include Fast and Furious, which sold 1.72 million units and generated $27.90 million in consumer spending at retail.
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While there were five newreleases to reach the top 30 on the rental chart this week, only one of them reached the top ten. That new release was Fast and Furious, which placed first with roughly two thirds more rentals than Watchmen.
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We are starting to see the flood of TV on DVD releases that hit the home market this time every year.
It makes sense: after all, what better time to release the previous season on DVD than just before the next season starts?
Three such releases, The Middleman - The Complete Series, Battlestar Galactica - The Complete Series - Blu-ray Box Set, and Dollhouse - Season One - on DVD or Blu-ray are in contention for DVD Pick of the Week.
The Battlestar Galactica release is a tad too expensive for most people, while I am unsure of the exact nature of the extras on Dollhouse.
That leaves The Middleman - The Complete Series as the DVD Pick of the Week, for the second week in a row.
With the increasing number of TV on DVD releases, the list is large enough that it has to be split into two parts with part two found here.
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It was a relatively predictable weekend at the box office with all five films finishing in the right order and within an acceptable margin of error. The main difference was the top three films were more spread out than expected, which gave Knowing a much easier win.
Overall, the box office pulled in $105 million, which was 4.5% higher than last weekend, but as expected, it was 6.6% lower than the same weekend last year.
Year-to-date 2009 has pulled in $2.20 billion, which is 12% higher than last year's pace.
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For the first time in a long time, 2009 showed signs of weakness at the box office as all three new releases were unable to match expectations. Overall the box office was down 14% from last weekend to $101 million. More troubling was the fact that is was down 16% from the same weekend last year. However, to be fair, this weekend last year saw the debut of Horton Hears a Who, which was the biggest hit of 2008 at that point and opened with $45 million.
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Disney remake Race to Witch Mountain made a solid debut over the weekend, according to studio estimates released on Sunday morning.
The adventure movie picked up about $25 million, enough for a comfortable first place.
Watchmen, which was widely tipped to earn a second weekend on top, dropped 67% to $18.07 million, not far ahead of Universal remake Last House on the Left, which earned a decent $14.86 million opening.
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After several weeks without much in terms of Award-worthy sites, we have two sites this week that are both worthy of the award: The Last House on the Left's Official Site and Race to Witch Mountain's Official Site. The former has better design, the latter has better interactive features. Both should sell the movie to their respective audiences, and both are recipients of the Weekly Website Award.
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There are some who think there will be a close race for first place on the box office chart this weekend with Watchmen having a shot at repeating on top ahead of Race to Witch Mountain. I am not one of those people. After bowing to the majority two weeks in a row, I think Watchmen will see a bigger than expected drop-off, while Race to Witch Mountain will open with a larger than expected box office. On a related note, 2009's winning streak over 2008 could come to an end, as this weekend last year saw the debut of Horton Hears a Who, which opened with $45 million. That's more than the consensus prediction for the top film over this weekend. In fact, it could be more than the three new releases will earn combined.
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2009 got off to such a great start that I didn't think February would continue winning, but so far that has proven to be the case, for the most part. Now March has a great chance of continuing that run with several big hits, including three potential $100 million movies. At the beginning of the year, I didn't think there would be so many hits in March, but a high tide lifts all boats, and the more people see movies, the more trailers they see in theaters, and the more likely they are to watch the upcoming movies.
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Weekly US DVD Sales

Full financial estimates for this film, including domestic and international box office, video sales, video rentals, TV and ancillary revenue
are available through our research services. For more information, please contact us at research@the-numbers.com.